Going for Four: Counting on Love, Book 4 (32 page)

She couldn’t deny that she felt fine about him choosing her in Tracie’s ultimatum. “What happened with Kari?”

“You happened,” Shane said with a chuckle. “It seemed like they went on a few dates, but then every time they were together, you called. Once you needed help unclogging your drain, and another time you needed a date to some high school reunion party thing, and another time you had a flat tire.”

She blushed. She remembered those times. The flat tire hadn’t been intentional, of course, but the other things…yeah, she’d known he was on a date with Kari.

Conner was watching her with narrowed eyes. “You intentionally sabotaged his dates?” he asked.

“Hey, I had a flat tire.”

“That you could have called any of
us
about,” he said, indicating the entire tableful of guys.

“I needed a date to my reunion.”

Conner shook his head.

“What?” Olivia asked.

“That’s not very…sweet.”

Emma laughed. “Surprise. Baby sister Olivia is devious.” She patted Conner on the top of the head. “We’ll let all of that sink in.”

She took Olivia’s hand and tugged her back toward the booth. She nudged her into the seat next to Amanda.

“There,” Emma said. “Now you know.”

“That I’ve been stringing him along too?” Olivia asked. She rubbed her forehead. “I didn’t mean to.”

“The clogged drain while he was dating Kari?” Emma asked.

“Okay, I didn’t mean to
all along
,” she said. She lifted her head. “I never meant to keep him from being happy.”

“He was never not happy,” Amanda said with an affectionate smile. “As long as he’s had you, he’s been happy.”

Olivia thought about that. It was true. She knew it. He’d been sexually frustrated maybe, but he’d been happy.

“So now what?”

Before any of the girls could answer, someone set a plate covered in plastic wrap in front of her. She looked from it up into Cody’s eyes.

Her heart slammed against her ribs. He was watching her with a combination of affection and heat that made everything in her strain toward him.

“Chocolate soufflé,” he said, gesturing toward the plate.

Oh. Wow.

“And this is the best damned chocolate chip cookie in the entire universe.” He set another plate in front of her. This one had a bow on it.

She swallowed, suddenly on the verge of tears.

She studied his face. He looked…determined. And he’d made her a chocolate soufflé. Holy crap.

“Cody, I—”

“No.”

She stopped and bit the inside of her cheek.

“Not yet,” he said simply.

She couldn’t think of anything to say, and before anything came to her, he pivoted on his heel and headed out the door.

“Chocolate soufflé?” Emma demanded.

“He’s…” Olivia swallowed. “He’s giving me the chance to try other desserts.”

Emma raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know what that means. But is this
real
chocolate soufflé?”

Isabelle lifted the corner of the plastic wrap. “It’s real.”

“Gimme.” Emma pulled the plate toward herself. “We’re gonna need some forks here. Stat.”

“But you
hit
him?”

Olivia grinned at the sound of amazement in Amanda’s voice. “Yep.”

Ryan had finally spilled apparently. Olivia couldn’t believe that the guys had kept her punching Conner a secret for two weeks. She’d known it would eventually come out, but she gave them points for not telling her sisters for so long.

She glanced around her office and noted that none of the firefighters, especially Cody, were around. She held the phone between her shoulder and chin as she typed the Perfect Pick website address into her Web browser.

She shouldn’t do this at work, she knew, but she’d just take a minute.

She’d gotten out of the Love Is Blind program after she’d told Cody she was going to make her own decisions and learn to trust herself. But she’d stayed with Perfect Pick. Having access to the whole site, full profiles, photos, and the ability to be in contact with the men before meeting them in person put her in control. She wasn’t relying on the computer to set her up—it was simply the medium she was using to
control
who she met and dated.

Of course, that had been before she realized that she wasn’t available.

She’d intended to delete her entire account the night Cody had brought her the chocolate soufflé. She’d logged in two weeks ago specifically for that purpose.

But before she could, she’d seen the little icon indicating she had a private message—it was hard to miss the cartoon head with its mouth wide open and a heart coming out of it. It was the first private message she’d gotten. Curious, she’d clicked on it.

The message had been from user CAM609. She’d looked him up but he hadn’t added a profile picture yet. He’d only been a member for two weeks, joining right about the time she’d planned to leave the site. Still, they were a ninety-three percent match.

But she wasn’t up for meeting anyone. Which she told him.

He’d responded with
Then let’s talk. Maybe you can help me out.

With what?
she’d asked. It was probably a line, but what the heck.

Romance.

Uh-huh. Totally a line.
Romance, huh?

I’m not so good at it. Wouldn’t hurt for me to have a mentor as I try to romance someone special.

She’d almost shut it off. But then she’d typed,
You’re on a dating site but you think you need help with romance?

How can I get better at it if I don’t practice?

Okay, he had a point. She was nothing if not pro-romance.
You really just want my advice?

If that’s all I can have right now.

That
right now
was a bit of a red flag as well. Was he thinking this was the best way to get close to
her
? But what did it matter? It was online. He didn’t know her. He’d never meet her unless she agreed to meet him.

She was in control here.

Okay. How can I help?

They’d been talking for two weeks now.

She hadn’t told anyone about CAM609. Because it was nothing, really. He made her smile. He asked her questions about women, ran his romantic ideas past her, and she gave him answers and advice. It was fun. No one knew romance like she did. She actually had niggles of jealousy for the woman—or women—who were on the receiving end of the ideas she and CAM609 came up with.

But she was keeping him her little secret. Her little secret that she was chatting with almost hourly.

“Liv, are you paying attention?” Amanda asked across the phone line.

No. She had two new messages. Were they both from him?

“Yes, of course.”

“Is dinner going to be okay?”

Amanda had to be asking about dinner at her place with the family. And if Conner and Olivia would be okay.

“Yes.” As far as she was concerned, things had been taken care of the other night. She’d put her foot down, told him to mind his own business, and if he did, things would be fine.

It was up to him.

She wasn’t going to bend over backward to make up, and she wasn’t going to worry about if he was mad.

She felt so different. Free. This must be how Emma felt all the time. Emma had never let anyone tell her what to do. Conner had, of course, tried, but Emma simply figured out how to hide things from him. She’d never actually listened to him.

“Can I ask you something?” Amanda asked.

“Of course.”

Olivia clicked on the message icon.

Only one of the messages was from him. Simply CAM609. She didn’t know his name or how old he was or anything other than the fact she was having a great time chatting with him and felt like she was bringing a little more romance into the world.

She wanted to tell Cody about it.

Because she wanted to tell Cody about everything. She
had
told him about everything.

Their entire relationship had been built around talking because they couldn’t do anything else.

And now they weren’t talking.

Well, not really. They talked, of course. She was his administrative assistant. But they didn’t
talk.

She saw him every day at work, and they weren’t exactly avoiding each other. He gave her long, heated looks. She tried to walk by his office as often as she could—in the skirts that she now felt free to wear. They stood stupidly close when they both ended up at the coffeepot. And there were the desserts—he brought her a new one every day.

But they didn’t talk—not like they used to. And they didn’t hang out. And they hadn’t had sex again.

It was strange. But she knew he was giving her space. Or was trying to.

She would have thought he was easily resisting her again, if it weren’t for the way he looked at her.

There was heat and longing and…love in his eyes.

He wanted her and she wanted him and they weren’t together.

Stupid.

But she planned to change all of this soon. It was her move. She knew that and she appreciated it. But she wanted it to be right, to be perfect. This time the heroine was going to give the hero the big, memorable movie moment. She just had to come up with the right way to do it.

“Was the look on Conner’s face as funny as I’m imagining?” Amanda asked.

Olivia laughed. “Yes. It was pretty priceless.”

She should have punched Conner a long time ago.

Of course, he’d never been so insulting before the other night. He hadn’t called her since then, and she knew he was waiting for her to call him. She was the one who forgave people.

And she would forgive him. But she was going to make him sweat first.

Yeah, she’d definitely lost some of her sweetness.

“What happened all of a sudden? I can’t imagine you hitting anyone.”

“He was being so…controlling.”

“Well, yeah. It’s Conner.”

“But he was so
rude
about it.”

“I’m glad you did it.”

“Really?” That was not something she would ever have expected Amanda to condone.

“Yeah. He seemed to come around with Shane and Iz, and he’s fine about Emma and Nate. But he’s never actually said that he’s happy for me and Ryan.”

“Really?” Olivia hadn’t known that. “That’s shitty. I know he loves you and Ryan together.”

“You think so?” Amanda asked.

“Well…” She’d
assumed
so. Ryan and Amanda were perfect together. “Who cares? Are you happy?”

“Of course. Ryan is amazing. I think we’re amazing together.”

And there in her sister’s soft tone, Olivia knew that it didn’t matter one bit what Conner thought. Ryan was Amanda’s soul mate.

“Then I think we both have to come to terms with something serious,” Olivia said.

“What’s that?”

“I do believe that our brother is full of shit.”

Amanda snorted this time. “I think you might have something there. Should we tell him?”

“You know, I think he knows.” Olivia thought more about that.

Conner had inherited the job of patriarch of the Dixon clan at the ripe old age of seventeen. Olivia had only been eleven. What did he know about being a father? What did he know about
anything
at that age? But they hadn’t had anyone else to look up to. Their mother told them to listen to Conner, so they had.

He’d been guessing all along.

And she was sure he knew it and had been simply praying that his sisters wouldn’t figure it out.

“Then dinner will be fine,” Amanda said.

Yes, dinner would be fine. Everything would be fine. She might even let Conner in on the fact that she knew about him being full of it. Maybe it would be a relief to him to know they knew.

The chime on the Perfect Pick site sounded, indicating she had another new message.

She couldn’t resist the urge to click on the icon.

It was from him.

The older of the messages simply said,
I’m thinking of you.

The new one said,
I want you to imagine the biggest, brightest, most expensive bouquet of your favorite flowers sitting on your desk right now.

She smiled. He must have had a good date the night before.

She liked the treasure hunt?

The idea was to plant notes and hints leading his date to the final destination for their night out.

You’re amazing
was all he said in reply.

Well, hearing that never got old.

“Olivia?”

Her sister was still on the phone. “Yeah, sorry. Yeah?”

“What’s funny about mashed potatoes?”